AP - Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston (5) runs away from Pittsburgh defensive lineman David Durham (37) for a touchdown in the second quarter of an NCAA college football game, Monday, Sept. 2, 2013, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

ACC Videos

Upsets are rooted in the unexpected: Something chaotic or unpredictable almost always needs to happen along the way. And the greater the disparity between the opponents, the greater the number of those somethings the underdog needs.

To put it in football terms: Go for it.

Aim for the jugular.

If you miss, you miss, but at least you've created your best circumstance to pull it off.

Which is to say, don't even remotely consider the approach taken by Paul Chryst and staff in Pitt's stick-to-the-script, season-opening 41-13 flogging from No. 11 Florida State on Monday night at Heinz Field.

No, the Panthers probably wouldn't beat these bigger, faster, more experienced, more skilled Seminoles but once or twice if they met a hundred times.

And, no, the Panthers probably wouldn't have solved the Seminoles' phenom quarterback, Jameis Winston, whose collegiate debut saw — sit down for this — 25 completions in 27 attempts for 356 yards and four touchdowns, plus 25 more yards and another TD on the ground.

“I was certainly impressed with him,” Chryst was telling us afterward. “He did a good job of making plays and extending plays.”

Well, that's one way to sum it up. Another is that Winston had only one pass touch the grass. The first of his two incompletions came as the result of a receiver — barely — stepping out of bounds.

Winston was brilliant. He lived up to all the Randall Cunningham hype and beyond.

But, man, at least make the kid sweat a little.

Pitt's defense spent most of the night basically sitting back and watching. Chryst and defensive coordinator Matt House seldom mixed up schemes to confuse Winston, seldom set up their secondary within 10 yards of Florida State's receivers at the line, and almost never blitzed. The reasoning was that they couldn't manage all the speed and all the straight-arrow routes, but the fact is the Panthers' secondary couldn't cover anything, anyway, so why not go for it?

This was a defense only Gandhi could have loved: Passive resistance, and hope for the best.

Chryst's explanation for the failure was this: “We never made them uncomfortable. Give them credit. We've got to tackle better, but they ran through our tackles.”

I'm on board with that first sentence, for sure.

The offense was only marginally more aggressive. Tom Savage, Devin Street and Tyler Boyd conspired for an eye-popping, 80-yard opening touchdown drive built on big plays. “I was out of control, so excited,” Savage recalled, and you should have seen the whole place hopping with him. It was way early, but upsets begin by planting those kinds of seeds.

Before long, though, the Panthers were reduced to trying to pound the ball through the middle with an ineffective Isaac Bennett, then leaning on Savage — scraping off three years of rust — struggling to find Street through two or three bodies.

There was nothing there.

And Boyd?

The elite receiving recruit out of Clairton, whose first touch was an electric 18-yard slice through the line on an inside handoff, might have been most capable of providing exactly the jolt to bring one of those chaotic or unpredictable somethings. But incredibly, he'd touch the ball just one more time the rest of the first half.

For a 23-yard gain, no less!

Final tally for Boyd was two catches for 26 yards — one an acrobatic effort near the sideline — and 54 yards on three rushes. But his four second-half touches rang hollow in light of Florida State already having soared ahead by three touchdowns.

This was the wild card Chryst needed to play with his initial hand, and he held it far too long.

I asked the coach if we can expect to see more of Boyd after this: “Yeah, I mean, absolutely. We're trying to find ways to … he's a good football player. I was impressed with the way he handled everything.”

Boyd had a similar response to the same question: “Oh, definitely. I think I did everything I could do. I could have made more plays, but I made just enough to do well.”

To repeat, this is hardly devastating. What was supposed to happen happened. It was a big whooping, but big whoop.

And I'm certainly not going to let the student-athletes off the hook, especially those in the secondary that was supposed to be a Pitt strength. The tackling was abysmal, and the coverage was awful times a zillion.

“We were there,” cornerback K'Waun Williams said. “We were in position to make plays. We just didn't finish.”

Hardly anyone did. This was lousy all-around.

And yet, what I can't get past was that this had a chance to be a special night, with ESPN airing the only game in the nation, with a throbbing pro-Pitt crowd of 65,000, with the eyes of the ACC on the newest member, with Downtown skyscrapers lit up in blue and gold as part of the university's continuing effort to connect to the city.

It could have been big, but you'd first have to think big.

Chryst and his team took the predictable route and reaped the predictable result.

TribLive commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments  either by the same reader or different readers.

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.

Print Source

Welcome to PrintSource, a division of Trib Total Media.

We have established a veteran team that provides daily and weekly newspaper companies with a comprehensive set of services that include design, print, packaging and delivery of their products, all from one source and location.

Gone are the days when each facet of newspaper printing and delivery had to be outsourced to different companies and venues. Now, PrintSource provides a viable solution with just one phone call.

Digital Sales

We offer a wide variety of traditional and new digital advertising options customized to fit your needs!

Whether you're just starting out, or you've been a keystone in the community for years, our knowledgeable staff can provide you with a customized package including online banners/advertisements, Social Media Marketing (Facebook / Twitter), Website development, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing solutions and much more!

Contact your local sales rep today for details, personalized proposal and a meeting to discuss how we can meet your needs.